Emilio Barzini, Sr.
Emilio Barzini, Sr. (born Emilio Barrese) was a Sicilian born-American mobster who was the first boss of the Barzini crime family. Barrese's name was changed to Barzini at Ellis Island, and his younger son Emilio Barzini, Jr. kept his name but his older son called Anthony Barzini, as did his younger brother, Ettore Barzini. In the 1920s he founded his organization and made lots of money off of prostitution, money laundering, alcohol smuggling without a license, and other criminal vices. He had police and political protection, which he fought over with Don Vito Corleone of the Corleone crime family during the Five Families War of 1945-1955, during the course of which he was murdered.and He is Father of Anthony Barzini, Alejandro Barzini andDomenico MazzaEmilio Barzini, Jr.. Biography Early Life Emilio Barrese was born to Antonio Barrese and Violetta Napoli in Trapani, Sicily, in 1880. his family was extremly poor, so Barrese and his family immigrated to the United States in the 1890s. Barrese registered his name as Emilio Barzini, and his name was forever changed, along with that of his brother. Barzini and his brother Ettore Barzini were employed as enforcers under Giuseppe Mariposa, a boss in the Midtown area of New York, during the 1910s and worked as hitmen. Soon, they became Caporegimes in the family, and commanded their own crews. After the murder of Mariposa in 1934, the brothers split off from the family and founded their own gang; Barzini helped the rival Corleone crime family after an attempt to murder Don Vito Corleone turned into a massacre. Barzini created the Barzini crime family after taking over smaller gangs and transformed his organization into the most powerful family in New York City, alongside the Corleones. Barzini had a mansion built, the Barzini Compound, in Central Park, modeled after the mansion of Hollywood movie producer Jack Woltz, whom he visited on a trip to the Las Vegas strip. Barzini had connections in Vegas, as well as in Cuba, both of which places he had casino businesses in. Don Emilio also invested in prostitution, illegal gambling, smuggling unlicensed alcohol, selling explosives, smuggling weapons and people, running chop-shops, diamond smuggling, and most infamously, drug dealing, supporting Virgil Sollozzo when he began the American narcotics trade in 1945. Barzini made lots of money off of the trade of marijuana, but he lost millions of dollars when Sollozzo was killed by the Corleones during the Sollozzo Intrigue of 1945-1946, as he was shot dead at the Louis Restaurant in Midtown on June 6, 1946. His death also caused an uproar with the rest of New York City's Five Families: the Tattaglia crime family, Stracci crime family, and Cuneo crime family. Barzini was the ally of Philip Tattaglia, the Don of the former, and worked with his hitmen, and as a Tattaglia Underboss once said, "We Tattaglias hold the gun, but we are not the ones who pull the trigger. That is the job of The Wolf, Don Barzini". This was more or less true; Barzini was a criminal mastermind who planned out the Five Families War, as well as the Bombing of Trapani's Bakery in 1936 and the Little Italy War of 1945. Don Barzini pulled the strings when Barzini, Cuneo, Tattaglia, and Stracci gunmen killed Corleone Underboss Santino Corleone in 1951. After the murder of Sonny Corleone, Barzini and Corleone set up a meeting of The Commission at the Hotel Alioto, a Barzini hotel that was taken over by the Corleones in 1947. Barzini and the other Five Families dons agreed that the Corleones would allow drug trade in their territory, so that they would get a cut into their political protection, and they could also chisel away at their Caporegimes' territory without revenge. Don Barzini was accused by Don Vito Corleone of being Santino's murderer after the meeting ended, as he recognized that Tattaglia did not have the brains to pull it off; Tattaglia was a pimp, and Barzini was the most dangerous threat to the family. Corleone swore on his grandchildren's lives that he would not break the peace and continue the war, but his Caporegime Aldo Trapani and the Trapani Crew caused trouble, and Trapani used the excuse that his hit squad was operating under the orders of Pete Clemenza. In 1953, Vito Corleone died, so Michael Corleone took over the family, and was legally responsible for following the truce, but Vito swore not to hurt a rival family's mobsters, and not Michael. In 1954, Barzini's younger son Emilio Barzini, Jr. was killed in a car bombing after the funeral of Domenico Mazza, who was the Consigliere of the Barzini Family. Their deaths led to Barzini claiming that Corleone broke the truce, but he did not, since the hits were under orders from Rocco Lampone, another Caporegime in the Corleone Family, and not from the Don himself. In 1955, Michael Corleone decided to put a hit contract out for Emilio Barzini, using the baptism of his nephew Michael Francis Rizzi as an alibi so that he could avoid red tape for killing him. On August 1, at Foley Square's Courthouse in Midtown, Barzini was attacked by Trapani, who killed all of Barzini's soldati defending him. Barzini was wounded and begged Trapani to shoot him and get his revenge, since Barzini had ordered the death of Johnny Trapani, and Trapani finished him with a shotgun shell. Barzini was succeeded as Don by Paulie Fortunato, his Caporegime. Category:Barzinis Category:Dons Category:Mobsters Category:Killed Category:Mariposa Category:Sicilians Category:1887 births Category:1955 deaths